LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — The gunman said nothing when he shot Shayna Conway.

The force of the bullet sent her crumpling to the road. He fired two more rounds, striking the 21-year-old woman, then began shooting her three friends.

Lying wounded on the highway, Conway looked up and watched as the killer turned the gun on himself.

She crawled to a cellphone, called 911 and waited.

“She can just remember screaming and yelling for help, and calling for Tanner,” said Conway’s sister, Courtney Crosby.

“She knew that he was dead because he couldn’t come and help her.”

Conway was the sole survivor of a horrific murder-suicide on a southern Alberta highway in the pre-dawn hours Thursday.

Her family rushed to Calgary from Prince Edward Island to be with the young woman, whom they describe as selfless and feisty.

In an interview with the Herald on Friday, they shared Conway’s account of the slayings.

Conway and her friend, Lethbridge resident Tabitha Stepple, were driving Conway’s former boyfriend, Tanner Craswell, 22, and his best friend Mitch Maclean, 20, to Calgary, so the men could catch an early morning flight.

RCMP haven’t officially released the names of those involved in the incident, but multiple sources have identified the victims to the Herald.

It was about 3 a.m. when Conway was steering the SUV along Highway 2 north of Claresholm, Alta. Another driver rammed the back of their vehicle, Conway later told her family.

She pulled over and stepped outside. That’s when she came face to face with the gunman.

Conway was shot three times — in the stomach, the shoulder and thigh, her family said.

The young woman, who is set to undergo further surgery Monday, is recovering at the Foothills Medical Centre. She can’t move her left leg and struggles to move her hand.

She has a breathing tube and can’t speak well, but has been sharing her story as best she can with her loved ones.

Tears come easily to Conway, who is having a difficult time trying to comprehend what happened.

Her family, too, can’t believe she was caught in the shooting rampage.

“This is something that would never happen to Shayna because she is such a nice person. You kind of expect it when they’re running with drug dealers, but not Shayna,” said her mother, Sheri Wade.

The mother said she’s so grateful her daughter survived, but can’t help grieving for the young victims who did not.

“My heart is broken for them.”

Police are still probing what happened.

Details of the hours leading up to the killings have begun to emerge.

Friends have identified the shooter as Stepple’s ex-boyfriend, Lethbridge resident Derek Jensen, 20. The couple had broken up after a volatile relationship.

Friends told CTV News that Jensen was controlling and that the pair had an altercation earlier Wednesday evening at a bar.

He “lost his mind and pushed her out of a chair and he was yelling. Then we left, he was phoning her, phoning her, phoning her and said to her, ‘This night’s not going to end well for you, I hope you know that,’ ” Cait McFarland told CTV News.

Among the group of four friends, however, Wednesday night had begun with a celebration.

Craswell and Maclean were close friends and up-and-coming baseball stars who’d played ball with the Lethbridge Bulls this summer. Conway had moved to Lethbridge from P.E.I. to take business courses at college. She dated Craswell on and off over the years, and was friends with Stepple. The young women worked together at a Montana’s Cookhouse.

Wednesday marked Craswell’s 22nd birthday and the friends were getting together for one final bash before everyone went their separate ways for the holidays.

Craswell and Maclean had plane tickets home to P.E.I.

Lethbridge Bulls Coach Kevin Kvame considered the young men like his own sons after they played for his team and lived in his home in the summer. He promised to drive them to Calgary that night to catch their early morning flight back home.

Caught up in the birthday fun, the young men decided to spend some last, lingering hours with friends at the pub.

They lined up an alternate ride — with Conway, and her friend Stepple.

Late that night, after the party wrapped up, Maclean’s girlfriend, Kevynn Wiebe, helped him load his luggage into the vehicle, gave him one last kiss goodbye, then parted for the holidays.

“I thought maybe it would be a long Christmas without him but I’d see him again soon,” said Wiebe, 18.

It was around 1 a.m. when Maclean, Craswell, Conway and Stepple drove off in the SUV.

In Lethbridge, Kvame exchanged a few texts with Maclean on the drive.

Then his messages went unanswered.

Kvame figured the young man had simply fallen asleep.

It was half a day later before details of the pre-dawn highway killings emerged.

“It was just a surreal afternoon as details started to come and you’re speculating because you have bits and pieces of information,” Kvame said.

“It was a horrible afternoon to find out the truth about what went down, that they were victims in the whole affair.”

In Lethbridge, Wiebe got the phone call from one of her boyfriend’s baseball teammates.

“(I’m) just so shocked that he (Mitch) is actually gone,” Wiebe said through tears.

“He was always very happy. Everything he did, he was such a goofy kid. He always made you smile and laugh no matter what.”

She’s also concerned about her roommate, Conway, who had moved in with Wiebe shortly after moving to Lethbridge. Friends are grieving the loss of Stepple, described as vivacious and fun-loving.

“(Tabitha) was always really nice and kind. Whenever I saw her, she was being a goof. She liked to have a good time,” said Wiebe.

Craswell and Maclean had been best friends since preschool.

“Even on the field, they played second base and shortstop, they were right beside each other. We’d see them joking around on the field, they were like brothers to each other,” Wiebe said.

While friends and loved ones are grappling with what happened to the young victims, Conway’s survival “is a blessing for this tragedy,” Kvame said.

Conway’s family describe the young woman as kind, creative — and resilient.

“She got shot three times and was still able to crawl to her phone,” said her sister, Courtney Crosby.

“That shows how strong she is.”

Community members in Charlottetown are already pitching in and collecting donations to help Conway.

At Lethbridge College, where Conway attends classes and Craswell and Maclean played ball with Prairie Baseball Academy, spokeswoman Gwen Wirth said emergency counselling was brought in to help deal with the grief.

Both a Canadian and P.E.I. flag flew at Spitz Stadium, home of the Bulls. They were lowered to half-mast.